Hotels: W offers free car service
Want a lift? Guests at all 18 W Hotels in the United States now have access to a luxury SUV that can take them to restaurants, the theater, and the airport.
The car service offers begins today and lasts through Jan. 31, 2009.
At most of the W properties, Acura’s seven-passenger 2008 MDX comes with a driver and is stocked with free bottled water. Gas and tolls are included, and drivers are instructed not to accept tips. Mercifully, there's no time or mileage limit. (When I stayed at the W in the French Quarter, New Orleans, this would've saved me a $29 cab ride to the airport.)
There are a few catches, of course:
The car service only offers a one-way ride from the hotel to your destination. The car can't be called for a pickup, but you can use it as many times as you want during your stay.
Two W properties aren't playing ball. The W Silicon Valley in Newark, Calif., and W Honolulu-Diamond Head in Hawaii don't offer on-call chauffeurs. But they do allow guests to take the car out for drives with a full tank of gas. Guests don't even have to refill the tank before they return a loaner car.
I recommend you reserve the car at the time of your reservation. Each property only has two SUVs, and the vehicles will probably be booked up quickly. That said, if you went to the lobby in the morning on the day of your arrival, you should theoretically be able to reserve the car for 6 p.m. or later that night.
Find more info at whotels.com/acuraexperience.